


Pain and Promises

by Alimator



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-11-15 05:17:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20860865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alimator/pseuds/Alimator
Summary: His chest rose and fell steadily as he slowly succumbed to sleep. Hopefully this time he would be able to sleep in peace without nightmares of Emilie, Adrien and Nathalie bombarding him throughout the night.





	1. Chapter 1

His chest rose and fell steadily as he slowly succumbed to sleep. Hopefully this time he would be able to sleep in peace without nightmares of Emilie, Adrien and Nathalie bombarding him throughout the night.

It had been a tiring day. Lots of paperwork, lots of work in general. He didn't even get a break for a bit of Hawkmoth action. He and Nathalie had been working tirelessly to get ready for his spring collection that was coming up rather soon.

Normally they would have more than enough time to complete the work at hand, maybe some time to spare, but when you throw Hawkmoth into the mix the job becomes so much harder. 

It was funny the way he blamed Hawkmoth, as though he was another person completely. Hawkmoth was him though. Hawkmoth was the cruel creature that lurked within him, only coming out of hibernation when Gabriel transformed.

A sharp pain stabbed his chest, causing him to recoil and gasp in anguish. His hand moved up to the cause, his miraculous. It glowed brightly illuminating his face and casting a ghoulish purple hue on the walls of his room. 

The emotion was strong. Someone in pain. They were confused, scared, lonely and in horrific pain, emotionally and physically. A perfect Akuma. But then he tracked the source. 

“Nathalie!” he whispered into the darkness, “Dark wings, rise!”

And there he was. Hawkmoth lying in Gabriel Agreste’s bed.

\---------------------

He could only be seen as a purple blur in the night. The darkness cloaking his every move. 

He moved quickly through the thick darkness of the night. It was amazing how agile the miraculous made one. With the suit on he felt young, free… almost.

Landing with a thud on the metal balcony of Nathalie’s apartment he peered through the crack in the curtains. Nathalie was shaking violently. Her coughs racked her body and caused her to shake uncontrollably. Every jolt of her body made his miraculous pulse, stabbing him with pain. 

Gabriel had insisted that Nathalie give him a set of keys to her apartment in case of an emergency. Now that she was transforming into Mayura, more times then he would think desirable it was important that he was able to keep her safe. Dropping his transformation he fumbled with the key in his hand, finally jabbing it into the lock and turning it. 

“Nathalie?” 

She was crying too. Loud sobs escaped from her mouth, as she gasped for air. 

Gabriel wrapped a strong arm around her, pulling her closer into him. 

“I don’t want to die,” she whispered.

“You won’t,” he said back, “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's like the middle of the night, but this story just popped into my head, so I had to write it down and post it!


	2. Chapter 2

Nathalie woke up with a start, her vision still blurry from sleep. Blood. On her pillow. She’d coughed up blood. 

“Nathalie?” A groggy voice said.

It was the first time she was aware of his presence, which was stupid because she was laying in his arms. 

A thick fog had descended upon her memory and she struggled to recall the details of the previous night. She had been coughing hysterically and Gabriel had come into her room out of the blue. They had talked. Only two sentences really, she must have blacked out after that.

“Gabriel?”

“It’s,” he paused and checked the small digital clock that sat upon Nathalie’s dresser, “Five Nat. You should be resting.”

“Sir,” she replied with a you-don’t-need-to-worry-about-me groan.

“Nathalie,” he imitated her tone, teasing her.

Nathalie got up on an elbow, but the movement sent a sharp bolt of pain through her chest and she immediately recoiled. Gabriel moved like lightning and put his arms around her before her head even hit the pillow. He pulled her head into his chest and held her close. 

Her breaths were jagged and raspy but slowly steadied. He rubbed his hand on her back but quickly stopped when he heard a gasp of pain from her. 

“Sir, we have a full day of work to attend to.”

Gabriel snorted, “One, call me Gabe, two, you aren’t going anywhere near the office today, nor the rest of the week.”

“Gabriel-” she moaned, but he cut her off before she could give him an excuse.

“No Nat, no excuses and no more Mayura.”

“What?” she winced at the exertion.

“No, I’m letting Emilie go. I thought a lot about it last night and I’ve made my decision.”

“Gabe,” she urged.

“I’ve lost her already, I’m not willing to lose you.”

With much pain, Nathalie turned to face Gabriel. He put his hand on her face and softly stroked her cheek with his thumb. 

“I love you, Nat.”

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> carola_tavs asked for me to continue, so I wrote a little bit extra! Hope you enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

They had fallen asleep again. 

He looked cute, lying peacefully, deep in dreamland. She softly pushed his arm aside and climbed out of bed, ignoring the sharp stabs of pain that shadowed her movements. 

Nathalie was a workaholic, she couldn't and she wouldn’t stop working. In some sense, she knew it was bad for her, but at the same time she didn’t see any point in stopping it. If she became stressed she would clean, organise or even better work, but Gabriel had forbidden her from doing so and her apartment was already spotless, so she busied herself with breakfast.

She was in the middle of making them both coffee when she noticed her hand tremble. It shook ever so slightly, but the weight of the full kettle made the trembling worse and soon she couldn’t pour without spilling the water everywhere.

She felt his hand slip around her waist and with the other hand he steadied the kettle, tilting it slightly so that the water poured out. Gabriel nuzzled her neck and she leaned into him, sighing contently. They stayed like that for a while before Gabriel spoke.

“Marry me.”

She jerked around to face him, “What?”

“We’ve been working in close proximity for a good two years, I think you could call that dating,” he shrugged.

“That's not dating Gabriel.”

He smiled and leaned in and kissed her soundly upon the lips, “Please?” he whispered. She narrowed her eyes and kissed him back, “Was that a yes?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Alright,” he drew back and placed a kiss on her forehead, “I’ll leave you to it.”

She went back to making the coffee, but she couldn’t help but smile at his precipitous behaviour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, you go at me hooked. I don't know where this fic will go and if I'll carry it on much longer, but I have a feeling I'll be finding out along with you guys.


	4. Chapter 4

He was staring at her. 

“Gabriel, stop looking at me and eat your pancakes.”

A playful smile appeared on his face and he looked down at the pancakes that she had placed in front of him, “You know this goes completely against my diet.”

She snickered, “You’d never follow your diet if it weren’t for me.”

“Okay, you got me,” he dramatically cut off a piece of the pancake and stuffed it into his mouth, receiving a giggle from Nathalie. Then he took a big gulp of his coffee and ‘aahed’, “Delicious. You know, you always make the best coffee,” She smirked and shook her head. 

They spent the rest of breakfast enjoying their pancakes and sharing keen smiles. Gabriel making it a point to make her laugh, himself relishing the sound. 

He got up and cleared the plates, taking it to the sink. She watched him roll up his sleeves and start scrubbing. 

“I didn’t know you were capable of things like that.”

“Things like that?” he shot her an amused look.

“You know… chores.” 

“Just because I’m rolling in money doesn’t mean I can’t do simple chores.”

He truly was an amazing man. She had always pushed her feelings for him aside, focusing on bringing Emilie back. Whenever she had felt affection for Gabriel she would swat them dead, as though they were some annoying fly. Apparently that annoying fly was invincible and the flame had always reignited.

She loved him so much that she had been willing to die for him. Die to make him happy. She kept telling herself that it was for him and Adrien. So finally they could be happy. By telling herself that, she was able to get through her pain. Now Gabriel was happy. With her.

“Yes,” she blurted.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Yes, I will marry you.”

Gabriel snapped around to face her. He still clutched a plate in his hand and the soap suds were dripping on the linoleum, “Really?” excitement penetrating his normally calm conduct. 

She walked towards him and placed a kiss on his lips, “Yes.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re obviously, like, sleeping together.”

“Father!”

Much to Adrien’s surprise, Gabriel strode into the dining room with swag that only he could pull off, Nathalie came in behind. His father hardly ever took breakfast with him. There were times when he had told Nathalie that he would come, but he ended up staying locked up in his office. He took a seat to the left of Adrien and Nathalie sat next to him. 

Their expressions weren’t exactly tense, but more like they were cloaking some kind of embarrassment. Gabriel took Nathalie’s hand and squeezed. 

“Adrien, we have something to tell you.”

It was obvious. His father looked at his assistant with love in his eyes. Duh. They were, like, together. 

“Yeah, I got it.”

“You what?” 

Adrien stuffed a forkful of food into his mouth and started speaking, relishing his father’s reaction at his manners. 

“You’re obviously, like, sleeping together.”

“Adrien!” 

Adrien swallowed and waved his fork in the air, “Well, you weren’t here early this morning and normally you two are up at like five.”

“So what the hell makes you assume-”

“Your hair,” he pointed at his father’s hair with his fork.

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s matted slightly on one side. You obviously hadn’t washed your gel out, so as much as you tried it stayed slightly flattened on one side,” his father reached up and patted his hair subconsciously, “Based on the side, you most likely slept on the right side of the bed. You were at Nathalie’s apartment. Because of your habitual behaviour, you woke up at your normal, five o’clock, but you probably fell back to sleep, based on the bags under your eyes. You woke up then at six. You’ve already eaten… pancakes and coffee? I thought you were on a diet,” Gabriel opened his mouth to protest, but Adrien continued, “One hour would have gone in eating and cleaning up, then you would have rushed here. The commute by car is about 15 minutes, so here you are.”

“How-”

“BBC Sherlock,” Gabriel gave his son a confused look and he smirked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought it would funny if Adrien took advantage of their situation and slipped a bit on his manners for once.


	6. Chapter 6

“I do.”

He was grinning from ear to ear. They leaned in and kissed and everything seemed to melt away. It was just them, only them in that moment… and of course Adrien, their very own Sherlock who was beaming as much as they were. 

They walked down the aisle hand in hand smiling at family and friends who congratulated them. It was only once they were in the car that they fully relaxed.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, the press is bloody exhausting.”

“People in general if you ask me.”

“Agreed darling.”

They kissed soundly. 

He had watched her walk down the aisle towards him. She wore a powder blue dress, designed by himself. He had taken inspiration from Mayura’s outfit and the train was made to look like a peacock’s fan of feathers. She looked stunning. He had no words for what he had felt in that moment, just pure love.

“Paparazzi,” she said blandly as they pulled up to the mansion. Her new home.

“Well, they want some pictures, let's give them some pictures,” she shot him a confused look, but he only smiled mischievously. Oh, she was going to hate this!

As soon as she had stepped out of the car he swept her off her feet drawing a small squeal from her. He carried her up the stairs of the mansion and waved to the cameras before shutting the double doors in their faces and letting her down. 

She breathed a sigh of relief, “I hate you.” 

“I love you too,” 

They kissed passionately.

She loved him and he loved her. What more could he possibly ask for?

“Hey! Make way for the great detective, Sherlock Holmes!” Adrien came and hugged them both, an embrace which they returned.

Well, he’d have to equate for Adrien somewhere in the mix.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End. 
> 
> I swear to God Nat and Gabe are bloody meant for each other!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! A bit of humour, a bit of fluff and a sprinkling of angst. 
> 
> I honestly didn't know where this would go and I was going to leave it at the first chapter, but, with many thanks from carola_tavs I continued and I thoroughly enjoyed it! 
> 
> Thank you guys for reading!


End file.
